The Uyo Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday, February 18, 2021, arraigned one Andrew Eigbokhaebholo, a staff of the University of Calabar, before Justice S. M Shuaibu of the Federal High Court sitting in Calabar, Cross River State.
He was arraigned alongside his company, Panandy Oil and Gas Nigeria Limited on one count charge bordering on obtaining by false pretence to the tune of N11,470,000. 00 (eleven million, four hundred and seventy thousand naira) only.
The defendant who claims to be a travel agent allegedly obtained the sum from a complainant on the pretext of helping to secure a United States of America Visa, accommodation and other logistics for his wife, who had planned to travel to the US to have her baby.
The petitioner swayed by the knowledge that the defendant’s children were US citizens, borrowed the said sum and paid the defendant only to be denied visa at the US Embassy.
The charge reads; “That you, Andrew Eigbokhaebholo “M” and Panandy Oil and Gas Nigeria Limited between May 2019 and June 2019 at Calabar within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court with intent to defraud did obtain the total sum of N11,470,000.00 (eleven million, four hundred and seventy thousand naira only) from one Mfa Erim Egodo ‘M’ under the pretence that you are a travel agent and that you will secure a visa to the United States of America for his wife, accommodation during and after the birth, hospital fees and other logistics, a pretence you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1 (1) (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Frauds Related Offences Act 2006 and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act”.
He pleaded “not guilty” to the charge.
The matter was thereafter adjourned till March 1, 2021, for hearing of bail application while the defendant was remanded in the custody of the EFCC.
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